Homebuilt Heros - Your Car Could Be on Our Cover!

"How do I get my car in HOT ROD?" That's a question we'd be tired of hearing if it weren't such a compliment to this magazine. The unfortunate reality for 95 percent of the people who ask the question, however, is that there's a slim chance at best that we'll feature their car beyond a Readers' Ride entry. There are only so many pages every month, and there are so many nice and, more importantly, significant cars out there that we have to be overly discriminatory on what actually makes it in the magazine. But for one issue soon to come, that all changes. Welcome to HOT ROD's Homebuilt Heros(TM), the best chance ever for real-world guys and girls to get their hot rods featured in HOT ROD.

Here's the deal: Send us good photos of your car with as much information as possible, convince us that you did most of the work yourself, and tell us why it should be in the magazine. We'll pick the best entry in one of 25 categories, and each one will get a small feature in the magazine. But the coolest news is that the overall winner (as determined by the judges) will be professionally photographed and may be put on a future cover of HOT ROD (possibly the February 2008 issue).

And if that isn't good enough, we've convinced 16 of our monthly advertisers to pony up quality goodies for each winner. That's right: If your car is chosen as the Best Mopar, for example, you will win a prize from each. And we're not talking key chains or can cozies, either. Every prize is worth at least $25, and as you'll see on page three our advertisers kicked in some really good stuff.

Categories

One winner will be chosen in each of the following categories. Let's say you enter a '69 Camaro. It could fit into the Best Camaro category (of course), but it may also fit into most of the 10 non-brand-specific categories, like Best Use of Used Parts or Quickest for Cheapest.

* Best Use of Used Parts* Most Bitchin' Stance* Quickest for Cheapest* Most Interesting Treatment of a Common Car* Best Dare to Be Different* Best Modern Treatment on the Pro Street Theme* Best Retro Car (vintage racer, rat rod, gasser, etc)* Best Hidden Treasure* Best High School SHOP CLASS Rod * Best Kustom (led sled to lowrider)* Best Truck* Best Street Rod (pre-'49)* Best Race Car* Best AMC* Best Buick* Best Camaro* Best Chevrolet* Best Tri-5 Chevy* Best Ford/Merc/Lincoln* Best Mopar* Best Olds* Best Pontiac* Kinnan's Pick* Freiburger's Pick

And finally! The Overall Best Homebuilt Hero!

Judging Criteria

The judging is based on the following criteria: relevance to theme and detail/clarity of vehicle specs, 50 percent; homebuilt evidence, 35 percent; photographic excellence, 15 percent.

A HOT ROD photographer will shoot the overall winner for the cover, but the rest of the category winners will be featured with the photos provided in the entry. That means you really need to read the next page, which provides photography tips.

Information We Need

You must completely fill out the entry form at the end of this story and include it with the photos. The entry form doesn't go into great detail, so please add as many pages as necessary to elaborate on all the specs of your car, and also why you think it should win. And since the whole basis of this contest is to show real-world cars built by real-world (nonprofessional) hot rodders, you'll have to convince us that you did a lot of the work yourself.

It's the rare hot rodder who truly does everything him/herself. Most of us pay someone else to paint the car, send it out for upholstery, or buy a pro-built engine, and that's just fine. We don't require that winners do everything themselves, since that's often not realistic. But we still need to be convinced that it fits into the "homebuilt" realm, so there's your assignment. Convince us. A photo of you coated in grunge lying under the disassembled car in your garage would be good evidence.

Deadline and How to Enter

Don't slack, because entries must be received by August 1. That doesn't mean postmarked August 1; it means it has to be in our dirty little hands or in our email box no later than 5:00 p.m. PST on August 1, 2007. Entries must be complete with the filled-out entry form and photos.

There are a couple ways for you to enter. Remember, all entrants MUST bereceived by 5:00 PM PST on August 1, 2007. You can either Click here for theOfficial HOT ROD Homebuilt Heros Entry Form fill it out completelythen mail it to us by 5:00 pm PST August 1, 2007 at HOT ROD HomebuiltHeros, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 or attach it as anemail to HomeBuiltHeros@hotrod.com. The other way is to that you canfill out. Whichever way you choose DO NOT FORGET TOATTACH/SEND THE REQUIRED PICTURES!

Want to improve your chances? Check out Page 2 for some photography tips. Also, take a look at Page 3 for some of the stuff you can win!